Check this out!

I got a Cricut expression for Christmas, I was very excited, but hesitant.  I didn't know if I'd use it.  Since I've been able to look around online and play with it some more, I am super excited.  Now a blog that I follow is having a giveaway for a cricut and three cartridges!  This is amazing, go check it out, and enter the giveaway.


Here

Also if you live near a Michael's, they are having a sale on their clearance cartridges.  I don't really live near one per say, but I went down near Austin to check them out.  I ended up getting $720.00 worth of cricut supplies for only $90.  6 cartridges, and 3 jukeboxes.  I'm very excited, and now everyone I know will be at least getting hand made cards and the like!  I can't wait!  Go check out Michael's, cartridges for 9.99 is a STEAL!

Not enough...

There is really just NOT enough time in the day it seems.  I've been down for about two weeks now.  I started off with just a bad cold that had me out for a week since Christmas eve.  Then just when I thought I was feeling better, my throat started getting sore.  Ugh.  Went to the Dr. and I had/have strep throat.  So between my being sick, and trying to stay away from everyone in the house, as well as attempting to keep some of this place clean, I have been busy.  None of my "goals" for the year have been worked on....well except for the money one I guess.  I can surf the internet all day sometimes.  Lately, I have felt that there just isn't enough time in the day.  I'm trying to get myself organized, and simplify, I'm also trying to make sure that I cook the foods that I had planned on cooking before I got sick, so that it doesn't go bad.  I hate throwing away perfectly good food don't you?  And weight loss...pshhht!  LOL.

So I'm slowly getting better.  I got some penicillin pills, and have been taking four every single day (a hard task for someone not used to taking that many pills in a day).  I've also been trying to catch up on my facebook, coupon sites, email, cleaning, and everything else.  I love to drink my coffee and search the net.  But it ends up taking a lot longer these days.  I am apart of so many couponing sites now, and crafting blogs.  Don't get me wrong, I love it, but its beginning to feel rather overwhelming.  Not to mention, its the new year, and what does that mean for the military wife?  Well, if your husband isn't already deployed, it means training and preparing for deployment, or it could mean him coming home, or him just being home.  But it usually is one of those three.  For me, it means preparation for him leaving sometime this year.  We just got news that my husband got the lucky news that he will be going in the advanced party.  This isn't really lucky news, it means that he will leave approximately 2-4 weeks ahead of everyone else.  Still, this isn't a 15 month deployment, so I've been through worse.  He may even have to be one of the ones that stays behind, and comes in later.  The last time he was deployed, he was one of the last of the unit.  Luckily, my bff's hubby was also coming in on the same flight, so I had someone to relate with, and still hang with before our hubs were both home.  This year is different.  I will be closer to my family, so that is a good thing.  Means my family is going to see us most of the year for holidays and what not.  It also means I'm going to have to make some more friends.  I have a few really great friends around town, but I love the socialization of military wives.  We all become a family of sorts, and I need it.  I'm the type of person that loves to entertain, and have a bunch of friends to hang out with.  So far, I have two friends who I luckily had before I even came to this post, but not much else.  Don't get me wrong, I have met people, but it takes me a bit to open up, and I just need more people in my life, lol!  So I need to put myself out there more.  I won't make many friends sitting in the house, lol.

So things are going to get busy in the Hirsch household.  I am working on being more organized this year too.  Last year, I started getting really horrible at remembering birthdays, and gifts to send.  I was slacking.  This year I need to get back to the old me.  I used to pride myself on the way that I was so organized, and debt free for the most part.  Now I'm in debt, and a cluttered mess.  Things are going to change.

 Too much stuff!

Still, there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day.  I've spent my morning, and my afternoon on the computer.  Checking emails, unsubscribing to the emails I get that I just delete most of the time anyways...I mean I'm sorry, but I don't need to know about the weekly sales that VS is having, especially when I can't even afford to browse, lol!  I've also been shopping for upcoming gifts that I can buy.  I found a perfect gift for my father in law.  And last but not least, looking at the couponing sites, and the crafting blogs.  First off, I have to save money, and why not spend .25 on shredded cheese instead of 2-3 bucks right?  I've become the person everyone dreads when they get in line at Walmart....yup, the coupon lady.  I'm not an EXTREME couponer...but I do enjoy saving my money.  Although, if I had a place that would double or triple my coupons, and I could get like $1,000 dollars worth of food for only $50 bucks, that would be pretty awesome.  However, I don't have a place or the space for all of that.  And yes, I would also donate it, but I'll just get what I need.  Thank you.

Then there are the crafting sites...eeeek!  I gotta say, people have some amazing ideas.  So much so, that I can rarely come up with my own, ha ha.  I want to learn how to do some glass etching soon, and I would love to make a valentines day wreath.  Speaking of Vday...what are your plans?  I think I'll make a special dinner for the hub and kids.  I'm buying my husband a new personalized bottle opener, and a personalized beer mug.  All for about $50 bucks.  He's been brewing his own beer lately, so I think this is a great gift for him.  I believe I will be asking for a steam cleaner...mine broke in the move, and even if its not a "great" Vday gift, it is something that I could really use, and its too expensive to buy it normally.  So there ya have it.  I have not posted any pics of my newest crafts or my newest recipes.  I forgot to take a picture of my artichoke, spinach pasta with grilled chicken, and sauteed mushrooms last night, but I will post the recipe later.

My day is running behind as it is, so off I go!

New Year...

New Years Resolutions

Every year I make a New Years Resolution...or 8.  Every year, I get two or three of them knocked out, and have to move on to the next one, and then by the time its all said and done, I'm almost back to square one.  I knew a person who didn't ever make New Years Resolutions because she said that it never works.  Now that isn't true for me, necessarily, I've vowed to lose weight...and I've lost it, and then the next year I gained it back.  Or I've vowed to put myself out there more, so I do, and then we move.  Being a military wife, your world is constantly turning upside down.  So this year, I've decided to make my resolutions known to the world.  Hence, posting them on the blog.

Perhaps I'll be more accountable for them this way!

1) Post on my blog at least once a month  I know I get busy sometimes, but I thought I actually did a pretty good job this year, I posted once every month.  I didn't do much more sometimes, but hey, I'm getting the hang of this whole blogging thing!

2) Decorate my house!  One of my rooms is almost all the way decorated to my liking.  That would be my bathroom.  I love the way I've decorated.  I love the way it feels.  I want to do just a few more things in there, but its the one room that feels good to me.  So I want to work on decorating the rest of the house.  Maybe get some decent furniture for my room, and work my way through the rest of the house.  I am also going to be working on my crafts around the house and things, it keeps me busy, and I enjoy it, and usually ends up being things that I love.

3)  Exercise on a regular basis  I need to exercise....no I NEED to exercise on a regular basis.  I enjoy working out.  I need to keep it up.  5 days a week.  No if ands or buts about it.  It just has to happen.  To keep me healthy, to keep me happy, that's it.

4) Make healthier foods  I absolutely LOVE to cook.  Lately, I've been cooking whatever I want though.  I haven't been going for the fat free sour cream, or the reduced fat cheese.  I've just been buying sour cream or cheese as is.  There really is no difference in cost, and there isn't much of a difference in taste.  So why not?  Right!?  Right.  So I'm going to be cooking healthier, making better decisions foodwise.  I will also be cutting down our drinking.  We enjoy drinking most of the weekends, so we are going to be only drinking one day a week instead.  So that should help as well.

5) Last, but not least, pay off our bills!  Since coming back to the states, we have sunk into debt.  I hate saying that.  We have never owned credit cards up until this year.  And now, we have a mortgage (which I don't really consider debt per say), our van loan (that we had to refinance on when we came back to the states), a best buy credit card, a bank credit card, a lowes credit card, and now a walmart credit card.  With the car, we have a total of 22,700 dollars in debt.  That is just a horrible number.  Granted, we still do owe quite a bit on our auto loan.  I'm hoping to pay off most of the credit debt come tax time.  Then while Paul is deployed sometime next year, I'm hoping to pay off most of the car loan.  Obviously, I can't hope to pay all of it off, but most.  So by the end of next year, I'm hoping that the 22,700 is significantly lower.  I will do this, by doing what I've been doing lately anyway, COUPONING!  I am going to try to get the most out of our money, and hopefully the bills will start being paid off sooner rather than later.

I have another small goal, I'd like to take more pictures this year.  I always take quite a bit of pictures, but since we came to the states, I don't take nearly as many.  I need to get back into the habit of taking pictures.  I don't even care if its just of the dogs.  I want to take more pics!!  =)

Soooo...what are your resolutions?

Memories of 2010...a photo journey

 Cozumel, end of December 2009

 Baumholder, tree in the back area of where our home was.  Jan 2010

 Metz, France. Chocolate for Valentines Day, Feb 2010

 Lexi Dog...Baumholder, March 2010

 April Fools Day...april fools "drinks", April (duh) 2010

 Holland trip, also April 2010

 Neunkirchen zoo, Neurkirchen Germany, May 2010

 Also May, Baumholder Lake/park area, 2010

 Coming home to the states, June 2010

 Finding our new home, also June 2010

 Visit to the Lakeway Resort in Texas, July 2010

 Same place as above, same month, just another really cute pic!

 2nd, and kindergarten first days of school, August 2010

 Uncle Luke and Aunt Bryn's wedding, September 2010

 State Fair of Texas, October 2010

 We got Bella in late June of this year, this is my sweet pup, November 2010

 My very first niece, Layla, is born Dec. 9 2010

 Literally right before Christmas, Dec 23, 2010

Happy New Year!

The Last Song

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

This was a very good book in my opinion.  I have to take Nicholas Sparks somewhat sparingly though because of the fact that almost all of them are loves stories, with a tragedy somewhere in there, and then happiness by the end.  I almost always cry when reading them, and I don't like to cry all the time.  I don't think that they are the same books, just a similar story, so once a year is good for me.  Still he always writes with a passion, and I do enjoy that.

This book was about a teenage girl, who is rebelling against life in general.  She doesn't want to go visit her father, but her mother forces her to go for a visit.  She ends up having a wonderful summer, falling in love with a boy in the area.  Learning more about herself than she ever though possible.  Then tragedy strikes.  Things aren't seeming to work out the way she wanted them to.  She ends up staying longer with her father than anticipated, but she is enjoying it.  Finally she goes home and becomes the woman that she wasn't in the beginning.  I could relate to this book.  I was a rebellious teenager at one point, and now I'm finally grown up too.  Even if I don't want to be all the time, I've grown up to the point that I realized the error of my ways.  So relating to this book was easily done.  I was smiling, crying, and falling in love, myself.  So overall, as with all Sparks books, this was a hit.  I can't wait to see the movie.

I have many more books to catch up on.  I was lucky enough to visit half price books and pick up a few more.  I've also joined this site called paperbackswap.com.  I love this site.  I enter books that I've read, ship them out, receive a credit, and then can get a book that I want delivered to me.  It works for me.

My next book that I'm reading is One For the Money by Janet Evanovich.  I've heard many great things about the whole Stephanie Plum series from a few friends of mine, so I've been eagerly awaiting a chance to get them.  So I ordered this one, and have started reading it as of two nights ago.  So far so good!  Have a great and wonderful Christmas!

Wishing...

Wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas!

Let me tell you about the day....

We woke up...I made coffee, because who can live without coffee, right??  Then we proceeded with our day. (Is proceeded a word? it just doesn't sound right.)
 Our first stop was Lowes, I absolutely LOVE Lowes!  First let me tell you about the Lowe's build to grow classes that they have for kids.  My little ones love to make their little toys or treats.  This whole month they have been doing a Christmas train, it started with the caboose, the passenger car, and today they made the engine train.  Very cute!
Then we went to Walmart, Old Navy, Bed Bath and Beyond, and finally Target.  We didn't find the deals we wanted, so we spent a total of $0.  Walmart in HH was supposed to have a ubuild monopoly deal going on for only $5.  Old Navy, was supposed to have $1 scarves, Bed Bath and Beyond is just a fun store to go to, and Target will not price match things when there is a limited amount of time IE door busters etc.  L-A-M-E!!!
So then we ran by the Walmart in K, no luck on the ubuild monopoly, I was starting to get my hopes up, but we headed out to CC to go to a beer brewing store anyway for the hubs.  And guess WHAT?  We found the Ubuild monopoly for $5.....then I obviously I had a coupon for it $3 bucks off, so I got it for $2, I would have gotten it for just the tax, but I used my other $5 coupon early.  MEH!  I still got it for only $2.  It was $15 at Target.  S-W-E-E-T!!!!
Unfortunately, Paul's beer store, was not stocked the way it should have been.  I guess those snow storms are taking its toll.  Its okay though, he still was able to find things online for his Christmas present.  So we came home so he could research.  He really wants to try to brew his own beer for Christmas, so why not.  Its no more or less than what I would have gotten him, so why not?
After getting home, we decided to rent some movies from redbox.  Ohhhhh, I love redbox.  How can you NOT?  $1 for a movie...its great!  Better than netflix, (although I still like netflix), its still cheaper.  I can get whatever movie I want, and only spend $1 as long as I watch it that night.  Since I joined, I got a free thank you rental, so we got 2 rentals for $1.  Nice, huh?
Then off to goodwill I went, because I like goodwill.  ITS COOL PEOPLE!!!  I found two interesting frames, and a Nancy Drew book for Autumn for Christmas.
We then proceeded to Bath and Body works.  FIRST off, you should totally add them to your facebook, and sign up for emails.  I get free things all the time with them...ALL THE TIME!!  First we got their new scents Bali Mango, Fuji Passionfruit, and Hawaii Coconut.  They were just the 2 oz lotions, but we still got two for free, and I spent $1 on the last one.  3, 2-oz lotions for $1.08 (tax, blah), very cool if I do say so myself.  We did play the system a little, I printed two of the online coupons for free lotion, Sierra really wanted one, and I wanted one, I chose the coconut, and mango for Autumn as a stocking stuffer.  Sierra chose the passionfruit, and the girl was being nice so she just let us have it.  To be fair, I had the two coupons, but they are only supposed to give one per customer...not sure if Sierra counts as a customer just yet....lol.
We then hit up the other goodwill.  I'm telling you people, ITS COOL, and don't judge.  Yes we go to goodwill.  First off, the girls LOVE it.  They typically get a new book, or cheap toy or something when they come with, and I can see if there are any goodies.  We ended up getting 24 books (most of them for the kids, but some were awesome, brand new hardcovers for me), I spent 27 bucks on them all.  They had a military discount of 15%, so it ended up being a little cheaper than it could have been.  AND I have MORE Christmas presents for the girls...and they will literally NEVER know the difference.  

So, have I mentioned how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE saving money.  It just feels sooo great to save, even if sometimes its only a $1 here and there.  Every $1 counts when you are a military wife!!

Now I must move onto something completely off topic....I WON this ADORABLE set from cleverlyinspired, and I ADORE this site.  She has so many wonderful ideas for crafts, cooking and more.  I highly recommend her site, if you get a chance you should totally check her blog out!  Its literally chock full of awesome ideas!
But I regress...here is the ADORABLE set that I won for the girls:

 How cute is this???

 This was an 18 mos old baby girl dress...I had her wear it as a shirt.  She'll probably wear it once or twice more, and then we'll give it to my little sisters daughter.  It will be super cute as a dress too huh?

I also won a baby doll dress, and an actual dress that would probably fit Autumn, but Sierra can wear it any time of year.  Its the red plaid, but no ho ho ho on it, so she can wear it whenever she'd like, and believe me.  She's a DRESS wearer, she LOVES her dresses!  She can't wait.

I love giveaways!  Thank you cleverly inspired!

Introducing...

My sweet little niece: 

Layla Grace

 Little old lady feet!

  She's so precious!  Congrats to my little sister and Charles, she's a beauty!

Book Review

The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

First off, let me say that I was riveted, almost from the beginning.  The beginning can get a little confusing for a few minutes.  Once you "get" what is actually going on, things start to make sense, and then the book gets really good.  From the title you can automatically assume its about a wife of a Time Traveler, and while correct, its also a romantic love story, that both is tragic, and complete.

Me, being a military wife, some of this actually kind of reminded me of our life.  How my husband is absent a lot of the times.  How sometimes I don't know where he is.  I don't have to worry about WHEN he is, but the worry is still there.  The main character in the book is a very strong, patient woman, loving and understanding, she only has eyes for her beloved.  Her husband, Henry, integrates himself into her life, from the time that she is just 6 years old, until she is much older.  I don't want to give the book away, or tell too much, but I wanted to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I will be looking for others from this author as well.  The writing was superb, keeping the reader interested, and not lulling too much.

I haven't had a chance to see the movie, but I am very excited to see it.  I think it could have been done beautifully, and I am very interested to see what Hollywood did with it.  Overall, I highly recommend this book!

Currently reading: The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

I can't wait to see the adventure Mr. Sparks will take me on..yet again!

Favorite Ornaments...

 Hurricane jar filled with multicolored ornaments, LOVE IT!

 More....

 Hand painted by me, gingerbread man...I painted this when I was pregnant with Sierra, just before she was born.

 I absolutely adore our angel!

 Autumn made this when she was in preschool

 Disneyland a few Christmas' ago!

 Last year I bought this at a Christmas markt in Germany, I miss the Christmas markets!

 Another from good ol' Germany

 I love it

 Some Texas love anyone?

 The girls advent calendars for this year.  There are 25 bags, I bought some goodies from the dollar store, for 22 dollars, I had the brown paper bags from a long time ago, and I printed off the template from another blog.  I also dug out my ribbon in my gift wrapping bag and hole punched, then tied them, so the girls can't peak!  Now I just have to find the blog that I used to print the template, and you can have an advent just like me, for soooo much cheaper than buying one....or more.  BTW-we had enough for two more kiddos!  =)

I love the holidays!